A hungry mother from Bolton, Greater Manchester, was left scarred for life after a food hack went oh so wrong. The 37-year-old Shafia Bashir was microwaving a poached egg when the item exploded in her face. The food hack recently went viral as the latest TikTok trend. However, the furious mother was left with the skin peeling off her face as mom was put into “absolute agony” after she tried to make her egg in the same method as the one promoted on the Chinese-owned social media video-sharing app.

The mother poured boiling water into a mug and then put the egg into it. She then microwaved the entire thing for several more minutes until the egg was thoroughly cooked through. However, the mom then placed a cold spoon on top of the egg, and it blew up “like a fountain” of hot lava. The egg explosion splattered the woman’s face, scarring the entire right half of her face. The woman, who has gone through childbirth, explained that the egg explosion left her in the “most excruciating” pain she had ever experienced in her life.

Although Bashir went to the emergency room to get her burns treated, she was still in severe pain twelve hours later. Now her skin is peeling from her face, and her skin was left charred and blackened.

Thankfully, the mother’s wounds have healed, but she now has a warning for anyone who wants to attempt this dangerous dish themselves. She urges people to turn their back on the viral TikTok cooking trend and avoid microwaving poached eggs, as they can explode in your face if you are not careful.

She said: “I just don’t want anyone else going through that because it is trending on TikTok. It was the most excruciating pain in my life. It was a terrifying time for me. I was in absolute agony. As soon as I put the cold spoon in, it exploded like a fountain, and it scalded me. I put my face under the tap and then had to get my mate to look after my daughter so I could go to A&E. My face has healed now, luckily with no scars. I used Vaseline, Sudocrem, whatever I could get my hands on.”

According to Shafia Bashir, she had been making the dish for three years when she suddenly decided to do it again on May 12, 2023. She was feeling “starving” and eager to eat a poached egg cooked with the microwave method. This time, the cooking trick ended in disaster because she put the cold spoon into the egg.

“I did it exactly the same as I usually do it. I had already made the toast; I was starving! My ex-mother-in-law told me about it. She told me how to make a poached egg in the microwave.”

She added, “I had been doing it for three years. I boiled the kettle, half-filled the mug with water, put salt inside, the egg inside, and microwaved it for a minute. It wasn’t cooked, so I put it in for another minute.”